Roger Basmajian purchased east riverfront building for
$1.275 million

This 105-year-old building at 3000 E. Jefferson Ave. is expected to be turned into about 80 studio and one-bedroom units.

A planned $13 million redevelopment along East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit could bring about 80 multifamily units to the market.

Roger Basmajian, whose Detroit real estate portfolio has grown to nearly a quarter-million square feet since the middle of 2013, said construction at the three-story building at 3000 E. Jefferson Ave. is expected to begin late next year or in early 2017 on the studio and one-bedroom units.

“We are just putting the pro formas and studies together, so next year we’ll probably get our financing in order,” he said.

Basmajian closed on the purchase of the 85,000-square-foot building, constructed in 1910 at East Jefferson and McDougall Street, earlier this month from WGPR Inc., which is registered with the state to James O. Dogan.

The redevelopment is also expected to include about 10,000 square feet of retail space.

The purchase was for $1.275 million, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.

Between that project and an expected $5 million renovation of a 28,000-square-foot industrial building at 3104 E. Woodbridge St., Basmajian has about $18 million in east riverfront redevelopment in the works.

That building, purchased in March 2014 for $240,000 and a block south of the East Jefferson building, is expected to become live/work space, Basmajian said.

Peter Jankowski, vice president of brokerage services for Core Partners, represented Basmajian, whose Basco of Michigan Inc. is the entity that purchased the building.

Basmajian, who was instrumental in the revitalization of Ferndale’s downtown area, also owns the buildings at 607 Shelby St., 220 W. Congress St. and 751 Griswold St. in Detroit.

He paid $1.31 million for the 50,000-square-foot Shelby Congress Building in November 2013; $570,000 for the 35,000-square-foot Sterling Building on Congress; and $800,000 for the 19,000-square-foot former Olde Building (now called The 751) on Griswold.